Ubuntu 10.10 Is Out Now

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I just got done installing Ubuntu 10.10 and i must say i really do like the improvements made since i last used it. No more messing with xorg to get my screen setup right, no more messing with so much to get the right drivers installed. It is now really simple to use. I have to mess around a bit more and get more stuff installed but so far i must say this is a great improvement since 8.04.
 
Overall I'd say it is an improvement from 10.04 (I've used every release since 6.06 on hardware, more recently I've also used VirtualBox). There were some installation issues with 10.10 that I haven't seen before (the USB creator doesn't work so you have to use an alternative one like unetbootin) and for some reason my WiFi didn't work on my laptop (wasn't the driver, for some reason the wireless switch was being misread) and the nVidia drivers caused my trackpad to stop working (reverted to the older ones and it works fine). Other than those minor issues I think the new installer is excellent, it is much nicer and streamlined than the old one and automatically installing updates and third party plugins is nice.

Also I had a problem installing the VirtualBox guest additions but that was resolved by a VirtualBox update, I guess the old additions wouldn't run on the new kernel or xorg version.

As for the new distro, the biggest thing I noticed was the new font (which I think is a good update, the new one is easy to read and looks good). I really want Firefox 4 on Linux with a new look (like the Windows version) and based on the concepts I think it will look great but going back to Firefox 3 after using FF4 in Windows for several months isn't that great.
 
I actually went and installed Chromium on Ubuntu. It runs great. I just dont have the energy to setup Firefox the way i want it at this point in time. I might set it up at some point but i am mainly using this as a refresher and just to check it out. I really do like the new look and feel they gave it. Sadly being a hard core Windows guy i find myself back in Windows just as fast as i installed updates and had to restart.

I will be trying it out more when i have time on my days off. I am just glad to get it installed and my dual boot working flawlessly using EasyBCD 2.0.2 so i only have the 1 boot loader.
 
I myself like Opera for slow systems. It's a nice lightweight browser, IMO. Everything worked out of the box on my Eee 1005ha netbook. Even my webcam. I just needed to install software for it.
 
I like Grub better than the Windows boot loader, Grub seems more versatile when it comes to other OS'es than Windows though I usually only have Windows and Linux. On this PC I mainly use a VirtualBox in Windows (Windows for folding, gaming, etc, but I have 3 monitors so I can run Ubuntu in a VBox on one monitor and it works great). I do have it installed on hardware to try out the ATi Linux drivers but I rarely use it. On my laptops I use Ubuntu pretty often and I have a dual-boot setup (my netbook is tri-boot between Ubuntu, XP (preinstalled), and 7 Pro).
 
I used to like GRUB, but i find it hard to work with being a Windows guy. That is why i like the new EasyBCD. It is so simple now to work with. Basically you add and entry for the Os of choice, use the drop down menu to select the loader that OS uses and it pretty much does the rest. I jsut added a Linux Entry, renamed it to Ubuntu and it configured it for me. Even though i didnt even install GRUB to the same partition as my Windows install, i installed it to the same drive as my Ubuntu install, it still worked flawlessly.

Yeah i know it seems i am promoting EasyBCD. But honestly it does work for those that just like simplistic boot loaders. Where you are given your options and you just select it and go. Even when i viewed GRUB after my install there was far more entries than needed. I saw 2 for Ubuntu and being a Windows guy that was confusing to me. Granted you just click one and go, it still brings up confusion for those that are not used to such loaders. Having that simple one from BCD where you are just given the options and select it makes life that much easier on us that are not hard core Linux people and use it on ocassion.
 
My main complaint with BCD is that I've had several issues getting it to work right. Sometimes when I resize a partition or move a partition BCD can get messed up. Also, Windows 7 always leaves a 100MB partition for boot files which I see as completely unnecessary and a waste of space and organization. I usually move the boot files to my Windows partition then delete the boot partition and I've had issues with that messing up (usually when the machine runs XP, Vista/7, and Linux in tri-boot) where I've needed to use EasyBCD to fix the Windows entries. I found the old GRUB easy to use (at first it was confusing because you had to edit a configuration file, but after many tries I figured it out) and generally preferred that but the new GRUB is configured differently and I still don't know how to fully configure it, though it does auto-detect operating systems and Linux kernels which is an awesome feature. Back with GRUB 1 I often had my Windows boot entry deleted after kernel updates rewrote the configuration file.

EasyBCD was pretty easy to use though, if you need a quick GUI it does work pretty well, I just didn't like the idea of starting Linux through the Windows bootloader and was already used to GRUB when I tried it.
 
The 100Mb can be gotten around. Use GParted to do the partitions, this will stop Win7 from creating the 100MB partition. I do it all the time.

The BCD getting messed up is an easy fix with this program. You can back up your boot information to anything. External, NAS, Thumb Drive and just import the files back. Can even create a Thumb Drive booter to do this as well.

So i mean the program has come a long way with the intro of version 2. The ability to add multiple XP entries without hassle and the addition of GRUB2 and so on. 2 year of work put in on this one.

But yeah if your used to GRUB then there is not much that can be said to convert you. I am used to the BCD. :lol:
 
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